Strange behavior of grep


 
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# 1  
Old 09-03-2014
Oracle Strange behavior of grep

Hi All,

I am facing a strange problem while grepping for a process. Here is the small script that i have written.
It will look for any process running with the parameter passed to the script.
If no process is running it should print appropriate message.

Code:
[oracle@server]$ cat t.ksh
#!/bin/ksh

set -x

sid=$1
sid_cnt=$(ps -ef|grep -w "$sid"|grep -v "grep"|wc -l)
echo $sid_cnt
if [ $sid_cnt -eq 0 ];then
        echo "sid not runing"
        exit 1
else
        echo "sid running"
fi

I executed the script with a parameter "abc". There is no process running as "abc". But the output of the script shows otherwise
Code:
[oracle@server]$ ksh t.ksh abc
+ sid=abc
+ ps -ef
+ grep -w abc
+ grep -v grep
+ wc -l
+ sid_cnt=1
+ echo 1
1
+ [ 1 -eq 0 ]
+ echo 'sid running'
sid running

When i run below command on command prompt, i get a different(desired) output.

Code:
[oracle@server]$ sid=abc
[oracle@server]$ ps -ef|grep -w "$sid"|grep -v "grep"|wc -l
0


Can you please help why the command is behaving differently when run in a shell script & when run on a command line.

Regards,
Veeresham
# 2  
Old 09-03-2014
This is because of the ksh process itself when you execute the script
Should be:

Code:
sid_cnt=$(ps -ef|grep -w "$sid"|grep -v "grep" | grep -v "ksh" |wc -l)

# 3  
Old 09-03-2014
A MR.Bean correctly notes it is because you use also "abc" on the command line. So that will end up in the process table. If you would use:
Code:
ksh t.ksh ab[c]

then it should also work.
This User Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
# 4  
Old 09-04-2014
Thanks MR.Bean & Scrutinizer for rectifying issue with my code!

Regards,
Veeresham
# 5  
Old 09-04-2014
The problem can be safely avoided with pgrep
Code:
#!/bin/ksh

#set -x

sid=$1
sid_cnt=$(pgrep -x "$sid" | wc -l)
#echo $sid_cnt
if [ $sid_cnt -eq 0 ];then
        echo "$sid not runing"
        exit 1
else
        echo "$sid running"
fi

This User Gave Thanks to MadeInGermany For This Post:
# 6  
Old 09-08-2014
You can also use the -c flag of grep rather than piping the output to wc -l so you get something more like:-
Code:
ps -ef|grep -wc ab[c]



Robin
# 7  
Old 09-22-2014
NB the shell matches ab[c] against the files in the current directory.
If a file name abc exists it will change ab[c] to abc, and the problem will be back.
Therefore, it needs to be quoted:
Code:
ksh t.ksh "ab[c]"

Code:
ps -ef|grep -wc "ab[c]"

This User Gave Thanks to MadeInGermany For This Post:
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